Shakin' My Maracas

Taco night. It's a night that strikes fear in my heart. See, I'm not a neat eater. And tacos, by their very definition, are not neat food.

I come from a long line of shirt stainers. My Grandma gets so into her work when she makes anything with flour that I tease her about her "flour pot(belly)". My mom and I laugh when we end up with blueberry pie on our white shirts. The first one to stain our clothing gets a high five. I've walked around more fairs and festivals with ketchup stains than I'd like to remember.

It's not so bad when you're kid is little. Mothers just look at each other, then look at our mutual stains, and then sigh and give a little salute to our mutual membership in the I-Can't-Stay-Clean-For-Anything Sorority. When Young One was little I wore my days, literally. Sometimes, I really miss those little yogurt hand prints that ended up on my back when he fell asleep eating in his high chair. I can still feel his little monkey arms clinging to me. Man, I miss being able to pick him up. My baby. My baby's growing up...

(Cue Barbara Streisands The Way We Were, sniff, reaching for Kleenex.)

Snap out of it.

I don't miss those little old ladies who, in their eyes, were helpfully telling me, "Honey, you got something on your back." Did they forget the good old days of their kid's sticky hugs? No, that's not it, they wouldn't dream of going out wearing their husbands old jeans and a maternity shirt covered in goo when their kid was ten months old. Back then, motherhood came with starched aprons, greeting your husband with a freshly powdered nose, and Valium every six hours.

I'm rambling again, sorry.

I'll call tonight a successful eating night. I gave up after one explosive bite that nearly scattered taco shrapnel all over my shirt. Thankfully, I was using the lean over your plate and pray method of eating. This is sometimes highly successful. The great thing about tacos is in a few rapid snaps of your fork, you can have an instant taco salad.

My food find, this week is featured in the recipe. Garden of Eatin' Blue Corn Taco Shells. I bought the dinner kit at our health food store, but I'm sure it's available everywhere. These shells were fantastic. And come in at just 3 WW Points for two.

Bet's Tacos

Another recipe that's so dang easy, I just can't put it in recipe format. You know how to make tacos, right? Either buy the dinner kit and read the box or go all the way and make your own seasoning, ground the corn for your tortillas, butcher a wild boar etc. If you do all that, you don't need me.

My signature (signature was a word we used often in the food biz) taco filling? I add a can of drained black or pinto beans to the browned ground meat. Black are our favorites. This not only stretches the meat and makes them much more WW friendly, but they taste delicious. It's also a great cheapskate tactic.

I use the leftovers for taco salad topper or wrap up in soft tortillas and bake in the oven in enchilada sauce. Not really, I've never done the enchilada thing, I'm just thinking out loud here, but I'm pretty sure that would be good. It would be good on baked potatoes too. Again, never tried it, but I'm good with flavor combinations. (brag, brag, brag)

In the picture above I used ground venison (cause we like to get all Ted Nugent on animals--I'm kidding. More about our venison here.) You can use ground turkey breast, lean ground beef, or that veggie substitute stuff.

Wear a bib if you dare to eat with your fingers. Points value depends on your meat and the type of shells and beans you add.